"Leila, do you think we should have spoken to those freshies and
extended the hand of friendship?" Marjorie inquired half doubtfully as
the party, now seven strong, loitered along their way to the Hall. The
balminess of the still September night made them reluctant to go
indoors.
"Not tonight," Leila reassured. "Plenty of time for that. Did I rush
into your pocket the first time I saw you, Beauty? I did not. Remember
Selma, Nella, Vera and I were at Baretti's when you five girls walked in
there on your first evening at Hamilton."
"Give us credit. We didn't whoop like a war party of Comanches, did we?"
This from Jerry, who had not yet brought herself to a tolerant view of
the noisy party of freshies.
"You did not. We four made more noise than you. That was nothing
compared to these Bertramites," Leila's criticism held indulgence.
"You said the tall one and the 'tow-head' were at the Hall. It would not
surprise me to find the whole aggregation there. The others may have
arrived while we were marching around the campus, making calls on people
who were not at home. I see our finish." Jerry groaned loudly. "The
majority of the sixteen freshmen Miss Remson spoke of!"
Jerry's surmise proved correct. The same group of girls they had
encountered at Baretti's on the previous evening trooped into the dining
room the next morning just as the Lookouts were finishing their
breakfast.
"The strangers within our gates," announced Jerry. "It's up to us to
remember 'em. What? I'm really growing fond of that 'What?' I can
understand why Miss Cairns was so fond of it."
"I think it is a foolish expression," condemned Muriel, her eyes
twinkling.
"Then never indulge in it, my dear Miss Harding," cautioned Jerry. "May
I venture to inquire what the pleasure of this distinguished company is
today?"
"Unpack, if our trunks come," returned Ronny and Marjorie together. "I
wish Helen would hurry up and get here," Marjorie continued. "We all
ought to go over to Hamilton Arms to see Miss Susanna. I'd not care to
go without Helen, though."
"What's a journey without the ninth Traveler?" propounded Ronny. "Have
you any idea when she'll be here?"
No one had. At eleven o'clock that morning, however, Jerry signed for a
telegram. She hustled up stairs with it to impart the good news that
Helen Trent would arrive on the four-ten train from the North. The
trunks having been delivered shortly before ten o'clock that morning,
unpacking was in full swing.
"We'll all go to the station to meet her," planned Jerry. "Only eight of
us can't very well squeeze into Leila's roadster. Four of us will have
to go in a taxi."
"I'd better call Kathie on the telephone and tell her and Lillian to be
ready," was Marjorie's spoken thought. "Lillian isn't a Traveler, but
she ought to be asked to join us. She has been so dear to Kathie and
Lucy especially, and to us, too."
"We might as well be the Ten Travelers as the Nine," agreed Jerry. "I'd
like Lillian to meet Miss Susanna, wouldn't you?"
"Yes; only we can't take her with us to Hamilton Arms without having
first explained all about her and asked permission to bring her."
"I know it. Do you believe our little old Travelers' club is really
important enough to leave to Hamilton as a sorority? It was different
with the Lookout Club. We were regularly organized with constitution and
by-laws, etc. This is very informal; secret, one might almost call it."
"I have thought about that, too," Marjorie replied. "I've also thought
we ought to ask Robin and Portia to join--in fact the Silvertonites who
have stood by us since our freshie days. There are Ethel Laird and Grace
Dearborn, too. They have been devoted to us."
"Don't forget Eva Ingram and Mary Cornell," added Jerry. "They certainly
stood by us when we had that row with the Sans during our freshman
year."
"I meant to count them in," Marjorie nodded. "Once, this past summer, I
made a list of names. There were nineteen, counting the original nine of
us. I didn't count Phil or Anna Towne or Barbara Severn. They are still
to come. If we leave the club as a sorority to the next senior class,
they will be the first girls chosen."
"The Nineteen Travelers." Jerry critically tried out the title. "That
sounds as well as the Nine Travelers. I don't know but better."
"We really need the whole nineteen if we are really going to accomplish
laying a foundation for a dormitory," was Marjorie's energetic
declaration. "I mean that figuratively. If we manage to get the site for
a dormitory this year we'll have done well. We don't even know whether
those boarding house properties are for sale."
"If they aren't, we might find another site, even better. There is
plenty of open ground below them."
"Yes; but it belongs to the Carden Estate and isn't for sale. I asked
Miss Susanna about it last June. She knows all about the land near the
college and Hamilton Estates. She explained to me the reason for that
row of houses along that little street. You know we wondered why they
were there."
"It always looked to me as though a couple of city blocks of third rate
houses had been picked up and dumped down just outside the campus limits
for no particular reason," was Jerry's view of it.
"Well, there's a reason," smiled Marjorie. "The workmen who built
Hamilton College lived in those houses while the work was in progress.
It took almost five years to build our Alma Mater, Jeremiah. By the
workmen, I mean the foremen and more important of the builders. I don't
know where the laborers lived. In the town of Hamilton, I presume. Those
houses were considered very sizable and comfortable in Mr. Brooke
Hamilton's day, Miss Susanna said."
As the two busied themselves with their unpacking, they continued to
talk over the project of enlarging their little circle to nineteen
members. Until their particular allies had returned to Hamilton nothing
could be done.
"Wait until college has opened, then I'll call a meeting. We'd best have
it in Leila's and Vera's room. It is larger than ours. Between you and
me, Jeremiah, what ought we to do about the freshies?" Marjorie
straightened from her trunk, her arms full of wearing apparel, and
stared dubiously at Jerry.
"What?" This time the ejaculation came involuntarily. On her knees
before her trunk, Jerry's head and plump shoulders had been temporarily
eclipsed, as she dived into the trunk to fish up the few remaining
articles at the bottom. "Oh, yes, I got you." Jerry had comprehended a
second after Marjorie had spoken.
"What you said at breakfast about the strangers being well within our
gates, made me feel that we ought to begin to try to get acquainted with
them. We promised Miss Remson to help them get settled, if we could. I
don't mind their being noisy." Marjorie paused.
Jerry eyed her quizzically. "You think they are too much like the Sans
to be a positive comfort around the house, now don't you?"
"They seemed a little that way to me," Marjorie admitted. "The Sans were
older by a year or two than these girls when they entered Hamilton.
These freshies are very juvenile acting."
"They acted last night as though they didn't care a button whether they
met anyone else or not. A sufficient-unto-themselves crowd, you know.
Still, if we hold off from them, they may feel that we are puffed up
over our senior estate. The best way, I guess, is to cultivate them. We
can be friendly, but a trifle on our dignity at the same time."
"We'll probably meet them in the halls and on the veranda during the
next day or so. That will start the ball rolling. I'd rather not make
any calls until I've had one or two chance encounters with some of them.
Being on station duty is different. It is a detail."
"I hate to butt into a stranger's room, freshie or no freshie," Jerry
agreed. "You know how we felt when the three Sans came to call before we
had hardly taken off our hats."
In spite of Marjorie's ever ready willingness to be of service when
needed, she still retained a certain amount of shyness which had been
hers as a child.
"I am not afraid of being snubbed by these lively freshie children," she
presently said, with a trace of humor. "I don't care to intrude on them
unless I am truly sure they want to know us."
"They don't know what they want or what they don't want," calmly
observed Jerry. "I am not enthusiastic over them, Marvelous Manager.
I'll try to be a conscientious elder sister to them, but it will be an
awful struggle."
Marjorie laughed at this. Jerry chuckled faintly in unison. The
unexpected invasion of Lucy, Katherine Langly and Lillian Wenderblatt
put an end to confidence. The will to labor also languished and was lost
in the ardor of meeting and greeting.
Invited to stay to luncheon, the ringing of the bell found Jerry's and
Marjorie's room in a state of temporary disorder. Every available space
was piled with feminine effects.
"Things are in an awful uproar." Jerry waved her arm over the chaotic
array. "The worst is over with our unpacking done. It won't take long
after luncheon to put this stuff where it belongs. Glad you girls came
to the Hall. It saves us the trouble of going after you."
Ronny and Muriel now appearing, the seven girls went happily down to
luncheon. As a result of Jerry's and Marjorie's talk regarding the
freshman arrivals at Wayland Hall, both were prepared to be
conscientiously friendly on sight.
A trifle ahead of their companions in descending the stairs, at the foot
of the staircase they encountered Augusta Forbes, Calista Wilmot and
Florence Hart, the "tow-head," just entering the hall from the veranda.
The eyes of the two sets of girls met for an instant. Marjorie smiled in
friendly, unaffected fashion, intending to speak. Jerry emulated her
example. To their surprise Augusta Forbes put on an expression of
extreme hauteur; Florence Hart stared icily out of two pale blue eyes.
Calista Wilmot, however, smiled cheerfully, taking no notice of her
companions' frozen attitude.
It was all done in a second or two. Marjorie's color heightened. She
felt as though she had received a slap in the face. The smile fleeing
from her lips, she treated the haughty pair to a steady, searching
glance. Then she quietly withdrew her gaze.